This invention relates to a shroud for a pin array in a printed circuit board having a latch to effect latching of a connector into engagement with the pins of the array within the shroud and in particular to a latching shroud that simultaneous to latching a connector into the shroud locks the shroud to the pin field on the printed circuit board.
Techniques exist for securing a shroud for a pin array to the circuit board in which the pins are mounted. U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,718 discloses a shroud having cavities in the base thereof to receive formed locking clips. Each locking clip is a planar spring having an aperture therein for biased engagement with a pin, thereby retaining the shroud to the pin array.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,387 discloses a snap-on shroud assembly for one or both sides of a printed circuit board. The shroud is retained by mounting legs having outwardly directed arcuate patent shoulders that snap into an aperture in the printed circuit board.
Other prior art techniques include using bolts and nuts or rivets to secure a pin shroud to a circuit board. The bolts and rivets require apertures through the circuit board as well as the shroud housing typically necessitates removing one or more pins. Furthermore, bolts sometimes caused a shorting problem between pins adjacent thereto.
Removing pins from the pin field eliminates future use of the pin. It would be desirable to have a shroud that could be plugged into a pin field as well as be secured therein without removing any pins such that upon removal of the shroud, all pins would be available for future use such as repositioning the shroud.